Gerontology Commons^™

The Hidden Struggle: Challenges Older Women Face In Nevada, Annie Vong

Student Research

In 2020, almost one in five Nevadans was over the age of 65.[1] However, within this age group, women outnumber men due to longer life expectancies[2] and migration patterns. Women over 65 years of age make up an estimated 18.1% of the female population in Nevada.[3] Of the male population in Nevada, 15.1% are over 65 years of age.[4] Older women are less likely to be married, are less likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree, are more likely to drop out of the labor force, and are more likely to be living in poverty in …

Late-Life Gender Disparities In Economic Security: Evidence From The 2022 Elder Index, Jan E. Mutchler, Nidya Velasco Roldán, Yan-Jhu Su

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Estimates from the 2022 Elder Index illustrate the elevated risk of economic insecurity experienced by older women, especially those living alone. We use the Elder Index to calculate the percentage of older adults living in one- and two-person households with annual incomes that do not support economic security. National averages suggest that half of older women living alone, along with 42% of older men living alone, have annual incomes below the Elder Index. In addition, 21% of older couples have annual incomes below the Elder Index. Women in same-sex couples experience greater levels of disadvantage than men in same-sex couples …

An Overview Across Three Generational Packages: Pioneer Generation, Merdeka Generation, And Young Seniors, Paulin T. Straughan, Yi Wen Tan, Rachel Ngu, Zidane Tiew, Wensi Lim

ROSA Research Briefs

In Singapore, there has been a concerted effort to implement diverse programs and initiatives to cater to the needs of the ageing demographic. In Singapore, it is expected that those aged 65 and above will make up 27% of the population by 2030 (Soh et al., 2020). It is also crucial to acknowledge that within this ageing population, each cohort follows a distinct life trajectory (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2010). For instance, older generations in Singapore may have navigated through uniqueevents like World War II, profoundly impacting their life trajectories. Meanwhile, newer generations are likely to experience remarkable economic growth alongside …

Enhancing Older Adults’ Mobility In Active Living And Tiered Living Communities, Yongping Zhang, Carol Kachadoorian, Wen Cheng, Edward Clay

Mineta Transportation Institute

The U.S. population is aging rapidly. As people get older, they increasingly face issues such as increased susceptibility to injuries and the need to be assisted with many day-to-day activities. Older adults have the opportunity to opt-in to live in an older adult community (OAC) based on their needs and capabilities. This study comprehensively reviews existing governing development regulations and design criteria related to the older adults’ communities, conducts surveys among people involved with some of these communities in California, and recommends improvements to community design for active living and tiered living communities. This study proposes a new scoring system …

Living Below The Line: Economic Insecurity And Older Americans, Insecurity In Massachusetts, 2022, Jan Mutchler, Nidya Velasco Roldán, Yan-Jhu Su

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

New estimates from the 2022 Elder Index^TM reveal that the cost of living in Massachusetts has increased substantially in recent years for older adults, especially for renters. The Elder Index measures the necessary costs faced by households made up of one or two older adults, calculated county by county for the entire United States. Estimated costs are higher in Massachusetts than in any other state in the nation. Within the Commonwealth, the Elder Index is lowest in Western Massachusetts, and highest in Metro Boston, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, with differences in the Elder Index across locations accounted for largely …

Living Below The Line: Economic Insecurity And Older Americans, Insecurity In The States, 2022, Jan Mutchler, Yan-Jhu Su, Nidya Velasco Roldan

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

New estimates from the 2022 Elder Index^TM suggest that nearly half of older adults living alone, and one out of five older couples, lack the financial resources required to pay for basic needs. We compared household incomes for adults age 65 and above living in one- and two-person households to the 2022 Elder Index for each state to calculate Economic Insecurity Rates (EIRs), the percentage of independent adults age 65 or older with annual incomes that do not support economic security. The EIRs allow a better understanding of how many and which older adults are experiencing economic insecurity. National …

Older Adults On Snap Experience Gaps In Benefits, Colleen Heflin, Leslie Hodges, Irma A. Arteaga, Chinedum O. Ojinnaka, Gabriella Alphonso

Population Health Research Brief Series

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest food and nutrition assistance program in the United States. Burdens associated with SNAP recertification often lead to administrative churn, when a household experiences a gap in SNAP benefit receipt. Older adults are at risk of experiencing benefit gaps, which may negatively impact their health and nutrition. This brief summarizes results of a recent study that examined administrative churn among Missouri SNAP participants aged 60 years and older. The authors call for program changes that reduce the frequency and duration of churn among older adults.

Adult Day Services In Maine: Benefits, Challenges, And Opportunities, Elizabeth Gattine Jd, Eileen Griffin Jd, Kimberly I. Snow Mhsa, Ba

Disability & Aging

In Maine and nationally, adult day services tend to be underfunded and underutilized compared to other types of long term services and supports (LTSS). In part, investment in adult day services is hampered by a lack of standardized data collection and limited research on issues of accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and the impact of adult day services on the broader health system. Lack of uniformity in state regulatory frameworks for licensing, program design, service delivery, and other administrative requirements further complicates cross-state comparisons. Considering these limitations, a key goal of this report is to provide a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of …

The Commuting Patterns Of Older Adults, Yen Cong Wong, Yan Er Tan, Grace Cheong

ROSA Research Briefs

This research brief uses data from the Singapore Life Panel (SLP) and provides a general description of the commuting patterns of older adults in November 2021. By outlining the latter, we aim to provide some indication of whether Singapore’s transport infrastructure adequately supports the commute needs of older adults and how older adults’ commute fares against the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore’s Land Transport Master Plan (LTMP). Key findings: 1. Self-owned car (32.8%) was the most preferred mode of transport, followed by the public bus (25.3%), MRT (24.4%) and walking (8.3%). 2. In terms of utilization, public bus (50.3%), …

Older Adult Healthcare Utilization Patterns And Receptiveness Towards Healthier Sg Initiative, Micah Tan, Grace Cheong, Wensi Lim, Paulin T. Straughan

ROSA Research Briefs

The Healthier SG (HSG) initiative was launched by Health Minister Ong Ye Kung in March 2022. HSG marks a distinct departure from existing healthcare models as under this new initiative, greater emphasis is placed on preventive healthcare rather than reactive treatments. This shift in approach is envisioned to have a significant influence on the healthcare system in Singapore – for instance, by focusing on “health care” rather than on “sick care” it is hoped by some that this new model will discourage the ‘over-service’ of patients by doctors in Singapore (Lim, 2022). An integral component of the HSG initiative is …

Social Security Benefits Continue To Fall Short Of Covering Cost Of Basic Needs For Older Americans, 2021, Jan Mutchler, Nidya Velasco Roldán

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Social Security benefits fall short of what is required to cover the basic cost of living across the United States, according to new estimates based on the Elder Index, a county-by-county measure of the income older adults need to secure an independent lifestyle. Nationally, the average Social Security benefit covers just 68% of basic living expenses of housing, food, transportation, and health care for a single renter in 2021, and 81% for an older couple. The gap between Social Security benefits and what it takes to get by is especially problematic for older adults who rely largely or entirely on …

Economic Security Of Older Women In Maine, Kimberly I. Snow Mhsa, Elizabeth Gattine Jd, Sammy-Ellie Mackinnon Msw

Disability & Aging

The Economic Security of Older Women in Maine: Data Report provides a snapshot of how women compare to men on measures such as wages and income, caregiving status, living arrangements, and rates of disability—factors that can impact Maine women's ability to meet their needs with the resources they have. The report, compiled by staff at the University of Southern Maine's Cutler Institute, informs an initiative led by the Maine Women's Lobby Education Fund and the Maine Council on Aging to identify gaps and pathways to support the health and economic security of older Maine women and all Mainers, now and …

Senior Center Response To Covid-19: Mid-Year Operations 2021, Ceara Somerville, Caitlin Coyle, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Senior centers/COAs in Massachusetts remained largely operational through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continued to assist older adults in the community. With the introduction of a vaccine, return to ‘normal’ operations has become more feasible. By mid-2021, senior centers were returning to some in-person operations and continued adaptations for safety, including mask-wearing, limiting capacity, fewer walk-ins, and increased hand sanitization availability.

Senior Center Response To Covid-19: Involvement With Vaccine Distribution, Ceara Somerville, Caitlin Coyle, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

In early 2021, access to a COVID-19 vaccine was prioritized for older adults and people with multiple co-morbidities. Between high demand and emerging supply, and new systems for booking a vaccine appointment, many people had challenges getting an appointment. Senior centers across the state became a crucial resource for access to the vaccine and additional information about its efficacy and safety.

The U.S. Should Expand Access To Dental Care For Older Adults, Madonna Harrington Meyer, Sarah Reilly, Julia Finan

Population Health Research Brief Series

Older adult Medicare recipients face high out-of-pocket dental expenses due to a lack of appropriate dental care coverage. Older adults with lower socioeconomic status tend to have worse oral health, less dental insurance coverage, greater difficulties finding a dentist, and low-quality care. This brief details the experiences socioeconomically disadvantaged older adults face in obtaining appropriate and affordable dental care and calls on Congress to include preventative and restorative dental care as part of the federal funding agenda.

江門市居家養老需求研究報告 : 城市深度訪談 = The Needs Of Ageing In Place In Jiangmen City : In-Depth Interviews In Urban Area, 嶺南大學-五邑大學居家養老聯合研究創新中心

APIAS Research Report 研究報告

本次研究旨在調查江門市老年人居家養老的現狀，探索服務需要，提升江門市老年人的生活質素。研究採用定性研究方法，對21名城市老人進行了深度訪談，調查日期從2020年7月到2020年9月。在這21名受訪者中，女性是11人，男性是10人；60-74歲的老人有9名，12名老人在75歲以上；與他人同住的老人有10名，11位老人是獨居。

研究檢視了江門市老年人的健康狀況和居家養老方面的需求，包括住房滿意度、社區設施情況、患病者個人護理需要及生活水準、健康資訊獲取方式、社會支援途徑和方式、老年人喜歡的活動、上門服務的選擇情況、社會組織分佈情況、患病老人的經濟狀況、及智能設備使用情況。

根據被訪者的需要，本文從醫療費用、養老中心和活動、可承擔服務、資訊傳遞、智能設備、家用電器及家居維修等六個方面提出了幾點建議，希望可以提升老年人的生活質素，使他們可以在家安享晚年。

Late-Life Gender Disparities In Economic Security In The Context Of Geography, Race And Ethnicity, And Age: Evidence From The 2020 Elder Index, Jan Mutchler, Nidya Velasco Roldán, Yang Li

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

New estimates from the 2020 Elder Index illustrate the elevated risk of economic insecurity experienced by older women, especially those living alone. We compare annual household incomes to the Elder Index for adults aged 65 years or older living in one- and two-person households to calculate the percentage of older adults with annual incomes that do not support economic security. National averages suggest that 54% of older women living alone, along with 45% of older men living alone, have annual incomes below the Elder Index. In addition, 24% of older adults living in couple households have annual incomes below the …

Studying Successful Ageing: A Showcase Of The Singapore Life Panel, Jee Yuen Yew, Jia Wei Gwee, Anirudh Srivathsan

ROSA Research Briefs

In this special issue of the ROSA Research Brief Series, we showcase two aspects of the work being done at the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA). Firstly, we showcase the capabilities of the Singapore Life Panel (SLP) and the data that the SLP is able to obtain and measure on a monthly basis. Secondly, we showcase the amazing work of the SGUnited Traineeship Programme’s Research Assistants at ROSA who have proven themselves to be incredible assets in helping further ROSA’s aims of enabling successful ageing in Singapore. ROSA aims to measure well-being among older adults holistically in order …

Connecting Care Chains And Care Diamonds: The Elderly Care Skills Regime In Singapore, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Kellyn Wee, Brenda S. A. Yeoh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research on the globalization of care work often faces the persistent challenge of building meaningful connections between the movement of care labour at a global scale and place-based frameworks of care access and delivery. In addressing this gap in this article, we propose to take a closer look at how the care-migration nexus produces 'ideal' care workers through a skills regime. Based on the case of elderly care in Singapore, in this article, we demonstrate how state institutions and private agencies attempts to fill local labour needs by producing care workers among both Singapore citizens and migrant women. This leads …

Aging In The 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas: How Do Older Adults Fare?, Jan Mutchler, Yang Li

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

New estimates from the 2020 Elder Index show that living expenses are high in metropolitan areas across the U.S., and many older singles and couples lack the resources needed to get by in their communities. Focusing on the 100 largest metropolitan areas, we compare the 2020 Elder Index to household incomes among adults aged 65 years or older living in one- and two-person households. Based on this comparison, we find that in each of the 100 largest metro areas, at least 37% of older singles are at risk of being unable to afford basic needs and age in their own …

Area Agencies On Aging Provide Crucial Support For Older New Yorkers During Covid-19, Claire Pendergrast

Population Health Research Brief Series

This research brief discusses how Area Agencies on Aging are providing crucial support for older NewYorkers during COVID-19.

Prisons, Nursing Homes, And Medicaid: A Covid-19 Case Study In Health Injustice, Mary Crossley

Articles

The unevenly distributed pain and suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic present a remarkable case study. Considering why the coronavirus has devastated some groups more than others offers a concrete example of abstract concepts like “structural discrimination” and “institutional racism,” an example measured in lives lost, families shattered, and unremitting anxiety. This essay highlights the experiences of Black people and disabled people, and how societal choices have caused them to experience the brunt of the pandemic. It focuses on prisons and nursing homes—institutions that emerged as COVID-19 hotspots –and on the Medicaid program.

Black and disabled people are disproportionately represented in …

Aging Strong For All: Examining Aging Equity In The City Of Boston, Jan Mutchler, Caitlin Coyle, Nidya Velasco Roldán, Paul Watanabe, Cedric Woods, Lorna Rivera, Quito Swan, Elena Stone, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The experience of being and becoming older differs substantially based on one’s race, ethnicity, and gender. In the City of Boston, it has never been more critical to strategically pursue greater equity in the aging experience of residents. According to data from the US Census Bureau, the number of Boston residents aged 60 or older increased by more than a third just since 2010 and persons of color now make up half of Boston’s older adults. As well, stakeholders share a growing recognition of the powerful ways in which inequity, racism and discrimination shape health outcomes and the aging experience, …

Staying Connected: The Importance Of Social Integration On The Well-Being Of Older Adults, Paulin T. Straughan, Vincent Chua, Stephen Hoskins, Frosch Quek

ROSA Research Briefs

It has been about a year since COVID-19 first emerged and reshaped the daily lives of people around the globe, including Singaporeans. Since moving past the circuit breaker in June, Singapore has gradually re-opened and relaxed its restrictions in different phases. As Singapore prepares for Phase 3- the final and least restrictive phase, it is important to examine how Singaporeans have coped and responded with the circuit breaker (7 April 2020) and its gradual easing of restriction in Phase 1 (2nd June 2020) and Phase 2 (19 June 2020), and identify the groups which have fallen through the gaps in …

The Gap Remains: Social Security Benefits Continue To Fall Short Of Covering Basic Cost Of Living For Older Americans, 2015-2020, Jan Mutchler, Yang Li

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Older Americans rely heavily on Social Security to support an independent lifestyle. Recent estimates suggest that among adults aged 65 years or older, more than half rely on Social Security for at least 50% of their family income, while nearly a quarter depend on Social Security for 90% or more of their family income.

Despite this substantial reliance on Social Security among older adults, Social Security benefits fall short of what is required to cover a basic cost of living across the United States, according to new estimates based on the Elder Index, a county-by-county measure of the income older …

New Cultures Of Care? The Spatio-Temporal Modalities Of Home-Based Smart Eldercare Technologies In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Increasingly, technology-enabled strategies of eldercare are being developed and deployed to minimize the socio-economic costs of ageing. As part of this shift, home-based ‘smart’ technologies have been embraced as a way of enabling ageing-in-place. Smart technologies flatten space and time, and can increase the reach of caregivers. In this sense, they foreground the emergence of new cultures of care. Through an empirical focus on the triallists of smart eldercare technologies living in a public housing estate in Singapore, this paper considers the ways in which new cultures of care are being formed and negotiated in response to the encroachment of …

Many Older Americans Do Not Receive The Recommended Home Health Care After Hospitalization, Jun Li, Mingyu Qi, Rachel M. Werner

Population Health Research Brief Series

Only 54% of Medicare patients referred to home health care services following a hospitalization received home health care visits. Policymakers must address this discrepancy to ensure all patients receive the home health services they need.

It's The Little Things: A Community Resource For Strengthening Social Connections, Caitlin Coyle, Shayna Gleason, Cindy Bui

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we prioritize connection for ourselves and the people around us. The global COVID-19 pandemic and the national reckoning with systemic racism has made people more aware and appreciative of their relationships and has made some painfully aware of how distant and disconnected they are. While the evidence is clear that social isolation is bad for health and well-being, the evidence base of solutions is far less so. Thus, this report sought to harness the energy, creativity, and progressive thinking of cities and towns in Massachusetts by documenting their efforts to keep people …

Measuring The Impact Of Covid-19 On Older Adults In Massachusetts, Ceara Somerville, Jan Mutchler, Caitlin Coyle

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The spread of COVID-19 across the United States has affected every facet of life since early 2020. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are currently over 4 million cases across the nation and over 146,000 deaths from the virus. Massachusetts has been one of the states hit hardest, with over 100,000 confirmed cases and more than 8,000 deaths to date. The Commonwealth currently trails only New York and New Jersey in number of deaths. While cases surge around the country, Massachusetts has seen some leveling out of positive cases since the beginning of July. Though …

Attitudes, Behaviours, And The Well-Being Of Older Singaporeans In The Time Of Covid-19: Perspectives From The Singapore Life Panel, Paulin T. Straughan, William Tov, Seonghoon Kim, Terence Cheng, Stephen Hoskins, Micah Tan

ROSA Research Briefs

COVID-19 has affected all Singaporeans, regardless of age and socioeconomic status (SES). Many measures have been implemented by the government to control the spread of this disease, including restrictions on social gatherings, restrictions on overseas travel, and making it compulsory to wear a mask. Measures have also included a partial lockdown – known as the ‘circuit breaker’ – which began in April 2020. This forced Singaporeans to quickly adapt to a new normal with some doing better than others. This research brief provides an overview of how COVID-19 and its related measures have affected seniors in Singapore using data from …